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Estimates suggest that about 1.6 billion
people lack access to modern electricity
for cooking, lighting and heating. In the
area of water, we are familiar with similar
gaps related to access to water supply and
sanitation. Over the past 20 years there has
been substantial progress in many aspects of
human development and more people today
are healthier, live longer, are better educated
and have better access to goods and services
than ever before. In spite of this progress in
human development there is a persistent
“bottom billion” of poor people that are
water, energy and also food insecure. To
meet the current service gaps for the bottom
billion and future demands from growing
populations due to economic transforma-
tion of societies, global energy consumption
is projected to grow by close to 49 percent
by 2035. Much of this growth in energy
demand will be in non-OECD countries.
Most future energy demand scenarios
have a high dependence on fossil fuels, espe-
cially coal, in spite of an increasing share of
renewable energy in the energy mix. Today
only about 13 percent of the primary energy
demand is met by renewable energy which
in this context refers to hydro, bio, wind,
solar, and ocean power. Hydropower stands
for 86 percent of the global renewable elec-
tric power production with significant po-
tential especially in developing and emerg-
ing economies. Future regional, national
and global policy and market signals, in part
as a response to climate change, will fluc-
tuate renewable energy’s share in the mix.
In determining the policies towards decar-
bonising the energy supply chain, where
fossil fuels will still be a key component,
a central question will be if this will have
an impact on an already constrained water
resources? To explore this issue we need to
better understand the role of water in energy
production.
Water is required to produce energy
for fuel production and power generation,
and energy is needed to move and clean
water through distribution and treatment
systems. This link is usually referred to as
the “water and energy nexus”. As freshwater
water and energy nexus
Will Growth in Energy
Demand Compete for Scarce
Water Resources?
With the world’s eyes closing in on sustainable development as we approach Rio+20, a conference was arranged by the
German Federal Government in Bonn in November to discuss solutions for a green economy that linked water, energy and
food security. Jakob Granit,provided SIWI’s input to the background paper for this meeting entitled “Understanding the Nexus”.
In this article, Granit reflects on some of the ideas that were brought up at the conference.
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Jakob Granit addresses the Bonn conference 2011: The Water, Energy and Food Security Nexus
By Jakob Granit
Director Knowledge Services, SIWI
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resources become scarce at the local, national
and regional levels, water will have to be
transferred, pumped long distances, or be
produced through alternative means, such
as energy intensive desalination processes
and recycling to meet different demands.
In this nexus the information on water use
in the energy production chain at the local
and regional scale is incomplete. In most fuel
extraction, refinement and power production
processes, water use is not accounted for
systematically and results vary depending
on the methodology used.
The large number of technologies in the
energy production chain provides a wide
range of water withdrawal and consump-
tion patterns. In general, the production
of biofuels is substantially more water in-
tensive than liquid fossil fuels. However,
non-conventional fossil fuels such as tar
sands, shale gas and hydraulic fracturing
are more water intensive than conventional
fossil fuels. In the thermal electric power
production process most of the water is
used for cooling purposes and abstraction
and consumption values vary depending on
cooling technique used. Hydropower is the
most efficient method of large-scale electric
power generation and has a key role to meet
peak demand in power systems thereby al-
lowing for the deployment of other renew-
able energy technologies. Depending on
the location of reservoirs, hydropower can
consume very small or large amounts of
water in terms of evaporation. Water con-
sumption also varies for different types of
solar power technology, while wind power
consumes negligible amounts of water.
It should be noted that in the thermal
power production process the actual water
consumption is less than the water with-
drawn. In general about five percent of the
water used in power production for cooling
is lost through evaporation and the rest is
returned to the recipient. However, water
returned has normally higher temperature
and altered quality which can have nega-
tive environmental consequences. Even if
the actual consumption of water in power
production is fairly low, water supply needs
to be ensured to avoid disruptions to power
production processes.
To further explore the question wether
water can constrain energy production we
need to improve our understanding of the
role of water in our economies. In the water
sector it is usually claimed that about 70
percent of the annual freshwater withdraw-
als is used for agriculture, 20 percent for
industry and 10 percent for municipalities.
Depending on the geography of a region and
the structure of the economy there are large
variations in water withdrawals and use for
different sectors. In the European Union
and the United States of America about 40
percent of the water withdrawn is used for
energy production with growing demands
from industry and for domestic use and
decreasing numbers for agriculture. In the
Middle East and Central Asia large amounts
of water (80-90 percent) are used for agri-
culture with considerable local variations.
These regional examples demonstrate
that water use patterns are different and they
are changing because of socio-economic
transformation and climate change. It there-
fore comes as no surprise that the political
and economic context behind the allocation
of scarce water resources for different pur-
poses, such as vital ecosystem functions, is
beginning to shape public policy in various
settings. In a context of growing demand
for water the challenge of governing and
managing water resources across political,
social, cultural and economic barriers raises
several dilemmas of how to prioritise dif-
ferent users. In addition, water does not
conform to borders and there are over 260
river basins globally that are shared by two
or more countries, not to mention bounda-
ries within countries. Some of the most con-
tested river systems in the world are found
in dry regions such as the Middle East and
Africa where international cooperation is
weak and civil strife and tensions prevent
cooperation on shared assets.
To respond to the question if water can
be a constraint to energy production there
is a need to increase the understanding of
the relationship between water availability
and water for productive uses identifying
challenges and opportunities. The analysis
needs to be undertaken at the appropriate
geographic scale taking production, sup-
ply chains and consumption patterns into
account. Such a systematic and holistic
“nexus” approach was explored in the Bonn
2011 Conference: The Water, Energy, and
Food Security Nexus that took place 16-18
November, 2011 as a step in the preparation
for the Rio+20 conference in June 2012.
The conference concluded that a framework
to better understand the linkages between
water use in society, energy and food pro-
duction and ecosystem services, should be
promoted to avoid future supply bottlenecks
and to provide all people with access to these
services. If the nexus is treated holistically
and linkages across boundaries are estab-
lished, single sector policies that undermine
the delivery of services in multiple sectors
would be avoided and welfare would be im-
proved. Such analysis needs to be undertak-
en by the appropriate regional institutions,
their member states and at the country level.
Innovation in integrated analytical tools
and governance at the national and regional
levels will be necessary.
About the Author
Mr Jakob Granit is a Programme Director
at the Stockholm International Water Insti-
tute (SIWI). He manages SIWI’s applied re-
search and advisory services work streams.
He currently leads SIWI’s Regional Water
Intelligence Team that provides clients
with specific advice and intelligence on
the political economy of water in regional
development. He has specific thematic re-
sponsibility for SIWI’s engagement in trans-
boundary waters, water flows from source
to sea and the water and energy nexus.
Further reAding
Considering the energy, water, and food
nexus: towards an integrated modelling
approach. Energy Policy. Bazilian M., Rogner
H., Howells M., Hermann S., Arent D., Gielen
D., Steduto. P., Mueller A., Komor P., Tol, R.S.J.
and Yumkella K.K. (2011): doi: 10.1016/
jenpoll.2011.09.039.
Constraints and Opportunities in Meeting
the Increasing Use of Water for Energy Pro-
duction. In Proceedings of the ESF Strategic
Workshop on Accounting for water scarcity
and pollution in the rules of International
trade. Amsterdam 25-26 November 2010.
Granit. J. and Lindström. A. (2011). (Ed.
Hoeckstra, A.Y., Aldaya, M.M. and Avril. B.)
Value of Water Research Report Series No.
54. (UNESCO-IHE).
Understanding the Nexus. Background
paper for the Bonn 2011 Conference: The
Water, Energy, Food Security Nexus. Hoff,
J. (2011). Stockholm Environment Institute,
Stockholm.
World Development Report 2011. Conflict,
Security, and Development, Overview. World
Bank (2011). The International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development/The World
Bank.
Water Security – The Water-Food-Energy-Cli-
mate Nexus. World Economic Forum (2011):
World Economic Forum Water Initiative.
Island Press. Washington/Covelo/London.
